6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
I Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45
"If
you want to... you can cure me.
Of
course I want to... Be cured!"
Last Sunday, we meditated
on the theology of suffering. With today's gospel narrative, we are given
another chance to continue our meditation on practically the same theme:
suffering. But as the episode focuses on the cleansing of the leper, our
reflection must also direct itself to the relevance of this miracle to our
human experience.
1. Even though much have already been done both by the government and non-government
agencies to approach leprosy in a more human way, this disease continues to be
a dreadful one. A million times worse can be thought of it at
the time of Jesus. There were no religious people whose apostolate was
dedicated to the lepers. There were only priests who pronounced them unclean.
There was no government that cared for them. There were only people who stoned
them and guards who drove them out of the city. There was no leprosarium to house them.
There was only a valley of death where the poor lepers wait until the last hour
when their leprosy would finally consume them. Such was the situation during
Jesus' time. If there was one word to describe best the leper's life, that word would be: alienation.
a. A leper is alienated
first and foremost from himself. This alienation is made manifest in different
forms: fear, sorrow, lost of self confidence. - - - Fear.
This must be the feeling of all lepers who get leprosy for the first time. The
mere thought of being dreadful haunts him. He fears his own leprosy. He fears
himself. --- Sorrow. A leper’s sorrow is certainly graver than that of any
other sick person. As he sees his own fingers, hands, feet, etc., slowly rotten
everyday, the leper feels as if he were stripped off of his basic right to be
happy even in the physical sense. - - - These, and perhaps other more, will
result to a loss of self confidence. If the leper will not end up hating
himself, he will find himself sooner or later with his confidence totally gone.
How tragic would it be to be a stranger to one's own self!
b. A leper is alienated
from his community. Once pronounced unclean, he becomes an outcast of society,
and the forced journey to solitude begins. Worse, he is stoned by the people.
And in case a leper happens to meet healthy people, he must warn them by shouting:
Unclean! Unclean!" Thus, not only must people
detach themselves from him, he must also detach himself from people. And this
is the more painful part of it. This is certainly adding insult to injury. A
leper, then, becomes alone and lonely. At a time when he needs a helping hand
and a shoulder to lean on, he finds nobody whom he can turn to. Even perhaps from
his own friends, he may get not a bit of consolation. This is why we choose
this word alienation to describe a leper's life. Leprosy defeats man's
nature as a social being. No one wants to live alone. But a leper must
c.
A leper is "alienated" from God. Of course, this is not all true, strictly speaking. No one is ever alienated from the love
of God. But situating this case at the time of Jesus, we can speak about certain
alienation of this kind. Leprosy carries with it a religious meaning. It is connected
with sin and guilt. Thus, the one who must declare him unclean is not a
physician but a priest, a centuries-old practice that takes its roots as early
as Leviticus (cf Lev 13:1 ff). And once declared
unclean, the poor leper becomes ugly not only physically but morally and
spiritually. This is precisely the reason why after curing the leper, Jesus
sends him to the priest. Just as the priest once pronounced him unclean, he
must also pronounce him now as clean. In this way, he may win back the favor of
God, so to say.
These are the burdens which
the leper in today's gospel carries with him as he approaches Jesus. And
perhaps heavily laden, he drops before the Lord and pleads on his knees. "If
you want to, you can cure me."
2. The words of the leper
bespeak of both despair and hope. Despair, in the sense that the leper must
have been suffering from this malady for years, and must have been praying for
its relief; but nothing happens to him, not even a little alleviation. Thus, he
comes to Jesus to gamble in despair: "if he wants to, then, I am cured,
but if he doesn't, then, I lose my chance forever!"
But on the other side, the
same feeling seems to build up his
hope. Although like a gamble, the leper knows that a simple will makes a way and a little bit of mercy makes things totally
different. It maybe hoping against hope, but that is all what a poor leper has.
The response of Jesus
surpasses whatever amount of hope the leper has. "Feeling sorry for
him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. 'Of
course I want to!’ he said. 'Be cured!”
a. Jesus empathizes with the leper, and
receives him with the warmth of love. By "feeling sorry for him," the Lord breaks the
first level of alienation the leper has. By facing him straight, he drives away
the fear which haunts him from the very moment he got his sickness. By accepting
him with compassion, he takes away the sorrow that has enslaved him over the
years. And by curing leprosy itself, he restores to the leper the
self-confidence he feels totally lost.
b; Not only does Jesus feel sorry for him. He goes as far as
stretching out his hand to touch him. Maybe, this is the first time the poor
leper ever feels the touch of another human being. This is the kind of touch he
craves for so long. With this, the Lord conquers the second level of alienation.
The normal reaction is to turn one's back and run
away. But with what Jesus does, the poor leper feels he is no longer treated a
thing, but a human person. The isolation he once suffered now vanishes, and he
feels he is back to the community he once belonged. He feels once again that he
is a social being.
c. :…go and show yourself to the priest, and make the for
your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence for your recovery.” At last,
the leper is freed from the third level of alienation. Nothing perhaps much
sweeter than to feel that one is back at the bosom of his God. The God from
whom he once felt separated has once more become his loving Father,
and the religious community his home.
Indeed, Christ wants to ...
and the leper is cured!